Starry Reads Podcast

Welcome to our Starry Reads discussion of our To Be Taught, if Fortunate, the hopepunk science fiction novella by Becky Chambers. We will start by discussing the worldbuilding, characters and themes without spoilers, then warn you before we're about to discuss the ending of the book.

https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780062936011

Becky Chambers is the bestselling author of the Wayfarers series and the Monk and Robot novellas. She has won the Hugo, Locus and been nominated for the Nebula and Arthur C Clark and the Women's Prize for Fiction, so she is very well-decorated!

To Be Taught was written in 2019 and nominated for best novella for the Hugo and Locus Awards, and nominated for the British Science Fiction Award for best shorter fiction. It is a quick read at 135 pages.

Becky says that part of the origin of this book comes from a long-standing anxiety about the state of space exploration in the future and grew out of idea for "somaforming" (as she calls it in the book) as Becky heard it at a conference.

This is a book that deeply explores the concepts of home, of humanity, and the importance of science, and our shared responsibility to others.

Other Chambers books we mention: the Wayfarers series, more space fantasy, more adventure but the third book is also contemplative.

The Monk & Robot series, which is interesting and super peaceful.

Natalie recommends Orbital by Samantha Harvey https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780802163622

Delia recommends Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780316578974

Deanna recommends The Martian by Andy Weir https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780553418026

Our next episode will be on the wonderful dark fantasy adventure The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman, just in time for the release of the sequel on October 13, 2026! https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781625676153

The sequel, The Thrice-Bound Fool: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781250621214

Find all our recommendations on https://bookshop.org/lists/recommended-by-starry-reads

To buy books, support independent bookshops, and support us (and not pay any more!), use our affiliate links in the post or shop https://bookshop.org/shop/starryreadspod

Don't forget to Like and Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and Follow the show on your Podcast app! We would love to have your review!

Comment on the YouTube episode, or send us your comments at [email protected]

You can also subscribe to our email list by sending "Subscribe" to [email protected]

Happy reading!

_____________________________________________________

Music: Light Sting by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100433

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Welcome to our Starry Reads discussion of our Favorite Fantasy Series (with no spoilers!). Today we're discussing three fantasy series we all loved, what we loved about them and why we recommend them. And then, because we all love to add to our TBR piles, we give further recommendations.

Series 1: Riyira Revelations: Theft of Swords, Rise of Empire, Heir of Novron

A high fantasy series that is fun, has very well-realized characters, and is filled with swashbuckling adventures! These would be great for a family road trip listen.

Series: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780316536165

Theft of Swords https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780316187749

Rise of Empire https://bookshop.org/a/127344/978031618770

Heir of Novron https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780316187718

Deanna recommends The Thief, first in The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780062642967

Natalie recommends The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780593725429

Delia recommends Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780060548254

Natalie recommends The Riyira Chronicles, the prequels to Riyira Revelations. Book 1 is The Crown Tower: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780316243711

Series 2: The World of Five Gods: Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, The Hallowed Hunt; the Penric and Desdemona novellas: Penric's Demon, Penric and the Shaman, Penric's Fox, and many more.

Lois McMaster Bujold is truly a master writer! The world and characters really shine in these novels, which often have interesting spiritual elements. The Penric novellas are lighter and often funny, and can be read before or after the novels.

The Curse of Chalion https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780061134241

Paladin of Souls https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780380818617

The Hallowed Hunt https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780060574741

Penric's Demon https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781504675284

Deanna recommends Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga.

There is some discussion about the proper reading order in this series. Do NOT start with Falling Free (it's only valuable later when you're devastated that the series is over). Deanna recommends Shards of Honor, Barrayar, then The Warriors Apprentice and so on.

(We try to support independent bookstores with our links, but Bookshop.org does not have these, hence the following three Amazon links)

Shards of Honor: https://www.amazon.com/Shards-Honor-Lois-McMaster-Bujold/dp/0671720872

Barrayar: https://www.amazon.com/Barrayar-Lois-McMaster-Bujold/dp/067172083X

The Warrior's Apprentice: https://www.amazon.com/Warriors-Apprentice-Vorkosigan-Saga-ebook/dp/B005DNGSUU

Deanna recommends the Rivers of London Series by Ben Aaronovitch, beginning with the book Rivers of London: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781625676153

Delia recommends The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman, which will feature in Episode 5! https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781625676153

Delia recommends Between Two Fires, also by Christopher Buehlman https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781250439208

Natalie recommends City of Stairs, the first book in the series by Robert Jackson Bennett: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781250439208

Series: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781984822116

Series 3: The Chronicles of Osreth: The Goblin Emperor; Cemeteries of Amalo Trilogy: The Witness for the Dead, The Grief of Stones, The Tomb of Dragons

This series is a delight with a peaceful air, even though we wouldn't call it cozy. There is a sense of resting in the characters that we loved. The Goblin Emperor is a standalone, more of a political intrigue. The Trilogy centers on a side character from The Goblin Emperor and is made of fantasy murder mysteries. We recommend reading them in the order given. The only downside to this series is the complicated names of places, people, and things. Check your copy for the glossary–its very helpful!

The Goblin Emperor: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781250303790 The Witness for the Dead: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780765387431

The Grief of Stones: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781250813916

The Tomb of Dragons: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781250821027

Deanna recommends Angel of the Crows, also by Katherine Addison: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780765387400

Deanna recommends To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers, which will we the subject of our next episode (we didn't know that when we recorded this) https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780062936011

Deanna recommends Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers, which starts with The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780062444134

Delia recommends The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, beginning with the novella All Systems Red, which is also an Apple TV series: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780765397539

Series, Volume 1: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781250389824

Natalie recommends The Singing Hills Cycle of novellas by Nghi Vo, beginning with The Empress of Salt and Fortune: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781250750303

Our next episode will be the lovely science fiction novella To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers, just in time for the first book of her new duology to come out!

https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780062936011

Find all our recommendations on https://bookshop.org/lists/recommended-by-starry-reads

To buy books, support independent bookshops, and support us (and not pay any more!), use our affiliate links in the post or shop https://bookshop.org/shop/starryreadspod

Don't forget to Like and Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and Follow the show on your Podcast app! We would love to have your review!

Comment on the YouTube episode, or send us your comments at [email protected]

You can also subscribe to our email list by sending "Subscribe" to [email protected]

Happy reading!

_____________________________________________________

Music: Light Sting by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100433

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Welcome to our Starry Reads discussion of Someone You Can Build a Nest In, the cozy horror-fantasy novel by John Wiswell. (https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780756419745)

John Wiswell is a queer, disabled writer living in New York City. He has been recognized for his writing prior to this novel, including a 2021 Nebula Award for Best Short Fiction for "Open House On A Haunted Hill", and the 2022 Lucas Award for Best Novelette for "That Story Isn't The Story." He credits childhood illness and time spent during his convalescence with fostering his love of speculative fiction and a good story.

This is a debut novel, and got a lot of award buzz. It won the 2024 Nebula, the 2025 Locus Best First Novel, and it was a finalist for the 2025 Hugo. It has been called a "gory asexual monster romance." We will hit this when we talk about themes, but Wiswell talks about really wanting to explore disability, monstrous bodies, and being seen.

This book begins with a sentient slime shapeshifter named Shesheshen being awakened by assassins! She escapes and is subsequently rescued by a kind, caring, bookish woman who she begins to have new and different feelings for. Through a few more twists and turns Shesheshen finds out her newfound companion named Homily is a member of the family that sent the assassins and wants Shesheshen dead to lift "the curse" Homily has been told haunts her and her kin. It also happens that within the family Homily has been the subject of constant physical and psychological abuse at the hands of her family. Together they rescue each other from a fate worse than death…and also just plain old death.

We discuss the medieval world with Shesheshen's species as the sole magical element that we see in the book, and the characters of Shesheshen and Homily, the entertaining Louis, plus all the cartoon bad guys. We spend time on the genre mashup and on the themes of The Monster is Not the Monstrous One, Identity, Trauma, and Parenthood.

This book has a lot of great humour, a really fun monster, and a few weaknesses too. It follows some romance-trope patterns, so that will be a good fit for some listeners and not others.

Books and Interviews we mention:

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781250439208

Track of Words interview: https://www.trackofwords.com/2024/04/18/author-interview-john-wiswell-talks-someone-you-can-build-a-nest-in/

Books we recommend:

• Natalie recommends Legends and Lattes for another cozy fantasy: https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781250886088
• Natalie recommends the show Deep Space Nine (set in the Star Trek universe). It has a character named Odo, a shapeshifter who explores many of the topics that I think John Wiswell is trying to explore here.
• Deanna recommends Nettle & Bone (https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781250244000), which is the subject of a previous episode! Episode: https://starryreadspod.com/nettle-bone
• Deanna recommends The House on the Cerulean Sea for a really cute book with a The Monster isn't the Monstrous One theme and a great audio version. https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9781250394545
• Deanna recommends Children of Time, for a longer and much more hard-science book with this same theme. https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780316452502
• Deanna recommends Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries, which does Non-Human Observes Humanity with fantastic dry humour and a lot of perceptiveness. https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780765397539
• Deanna recommends The Girl with All the Gifts for a light edge of horror–it's speculative fiction, but it's horrific and beautiful, and more serious and substantive than this book. https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780316334754
• Delia recommends the old Beauty and the Beast tv show with Linda Hamilton and Ron Perleman.

Our next episode will cover our Favorite Fantasy series with no spoilers! But if you're looking to get ahead on reading, the following episode will be To Be Taught if Fortunate (https://bookshop.org/a/127344/9780062936011) by Becky Chambers, just in time for the first book of her new duology to come out!

Find all our recommendations on https://bookshop.org/lists/recommended-by-starry-reads

To buy books, support independent bookshops, and support us (and not pay any more!), use our affiliate links in the post or shop https://bookshop.org/shop/starryreadspod

Don't forget to Subscribe to our YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@starryreadspodcast) and Follow the show on your Podcast app!

Comment on the YouTube episode, or send us your comments at [email protected]

You can also subscribe to our email list by sending "Subscribe" to [email protected]

Happy reading!

_____________________________________________________

Music: Light Sting by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100433

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Welcome to our first episode of the Starry Reads Podcast, on Nettle and Bone, T. Kingfisher's super-popular, 2023 Hugo-winning fantasy novel.

T. Kingfisher is an American writer, artist, illustrator and webcomic creator. A prolific writer of fiction for both adults and children (under her actual name of Ursula Vernon) she has won several awards including the Hugo for Nettle & Bone, as well as award for her children's fiction and her graphic novel. So clearly a woman of many talents!

Nettle and Bone was a 2022 Nebula nominee, it did not win, Babel won that year, but it did win the 2023 Hugo award, so we know that readers really loved this book.

We found the world building in this book to be very well done with a fairytale feel and a modern feel. The author uses simple names and a youthful feel to produce a novel that deals with serious themes and impossible situations. It has a light feel with real gravity underneath!

We loved the magical system, where there is a cost to the magic. We also loved the light-yet-macabre elements that showed up over and over, starting with Bonedog, then the Goblin Market, the Tooth Dancer, the Curse Child, the Thief Wheel, and so much more!

We talk about the interaction of blessings and curses, the feminine-based themes of the dangers of pregnancy and childbirth and women's power, leadership, agency and sacrifice.

The poem The Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti

Here are some of the books we mention:

Other T. Kingfisher titles:

• A Sorceress Comes to Call
• A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking
• What Moves the Dead, which is a House of Usher retelling

And our recommendations where to go next after Nettle and Bone:

• Uprooted, Naomi Novik
• Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik
• Delia recommends: the first season of Once Upon a Time, a show based on characters from fairy tales set in modern times
• Deanna recommends: The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo, and the rest of the "Singing Hills" series–This has a fairytale feel plus a feminist edge, in a different style of setting.
• Deanna recommends: The Goblin Emperor and the Cemeteries of Amalo series, which starts with The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison–these books are delightful. The Goblin Emperor came out when everything in Fantasy was Grimdark, and it is a bright, heartfelt tale instead and it was such a relief. And then the Cemeteries series is also great.
• Natalie recommends: The Black Tongue Thief while it feels more "adult", it has many of the same elements, such as a journey, a rag-tag group on a mission, humour, and lots of magic.

Our next episode will be over the cozy horror-fantasy novel, Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell.

Find all our recommendations on https://bookshop.org/lists/recommended-by-starry-reads

To buy books, support independent bookshops, and support us (and not pay any more!), use our affiliate links in the post or shop https://bookshop.org/shop/starryreadspod

Don't forget to Subscribe to our YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@starryreadspodcast) and Follow the show on your Podcast app! Give us feedback on the show at https://forms.gle/VV2xQCvyqyofNZ6w6

Comment on the YouTube episode, or send us your comments at [email protected]

You can also subscribe to our email list by sending "Subscribe" to [email protected]

Happy reading!

Meet Delia, Natalie and Deanna in this introduction to Starry Reads! Listen for host backgrounds, our interest in the Scifi and Fantasy genres and what to expect from the show.

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